The medical malpractice and personal injury team at Fronzuto Law Group is proud to announce $9 million in recoveries in the last 9 months.
In three diverse cases, one medical malpractice, one personal injury, and one wrongful death, the firm fought to obtain justice and just compensation for the injured victim, the deceased, and their loved ones. So what can these cases teach us about injury litigation in New Jersey? Let’s take a look.
Just as each individual is fundamentally unique, from their life story to their fingerprint, each case is also unique in its events and its impacts. And yet, some overarching truths transcend the recent cases that the firm has settled with recoveries amounting to nine million dollars. In fact, these lessons ring true in virtually all injury cases, perhaps the most important of which we’ll delve into below.
Lesson #1: Profiles of Injured Victims Know no Bounds
When it comes to those injured and those who tragically die as a result of critical breaches in the duty of care owed to them by other parties, the victim can be anyone. No matter their age, life circumstances, background, beliefs, achievements, families, friends, or failures, a victim of medical malpractice, personal injury, or wrongful death is simply a person.
For example, the client in one of our recent cases was a 52-year-old man whose untimely death occurred after negligent stroke care. Another client, a 38-year-old woman in the prime of her life, lost a leg with what began as a common injury while doing household chores. Yet another of our clients, age 72, walked through an intersection at a crosswalk only to find herself catastrophically injured by a negligent truck driver.
Lesson #2: Injuries Caused by Negligence are Highly Variable
With decades of experience handling lawsuits on behalf of those who suffer harm at the hands of doctors, nurses, hospitals, product manufacturers, drivers, government entities, and other negligent parties, our lawyers know all too well that injuries fall on a vast spectrum. From broken bones to brain damage, from paralyzed limbs to amputations, from nerve damage and permanent scarring to organ failure, and from loss of function to loss of life, the particular injury that a person suffers in a given case can be anything. Likewise, “injuries” can mean more than one thing.
For instance, in the latest wrongful death case in which we obtained $3 million on behalf of the estate, the deceased victim was no longer alive to cope with the long-term effects of the injuries he experienced. His death marked not only the end of his life, but the end of the relationships enjoyed with his loved ones and his individual contribution to his family. For this reason, the injury in a wrongful death action, and the recoverable damages on behalf of the decedent, include things like loss of services, loss of guidance, loss of income to the family, as well as more typical calculable losses like medical expenses and funeral costs.
Lesson #3: A Cause of Action Requires More than Injury Alone
In order for a case to be actionable, it must include a conglomeration of factors. First and foremost, the party or parties named as defendants, meaning those being sued, must owe the plaintiff, meaning the person filing suit, a “duty of care.” Notably, the particular duty owed in a case varies based on the circumstances.
By way of example, the driver in our latest pedestrian accident case owed a duty of care to drive with reasonable care, precaution, and vigilance as measured against what a prudent driver would do when faced with the same situation. By contrast, the surgeon in the medical malpractice case owed a duty of care to his patient. This physician’s conduct is evaluated in the context of what another medical professional practicing in the same speciality, with the same education, training, and experience, would do when presented with the same patient profile.
In addition to the “duty” that exists in a case, there must also be a “breach” of that duty. This means that the defendant must have failed to fulfill the duty that they owed to the victim. However, the mere presence of a duty and a breach cannot support a cause of action on their own. There must be “causation,” meaning a causal link between the breach itself and the resulting detrimental effects, known as “damages.”
The concept of “damages,” which refers to the compensation owed to the victim, encompasses both easily calculable financial losses and more nuanced, yet equally impactful results of negligence, such as psychological trauma, physical pain, foregone earning potential, and lost quality of life.
Lesson #4: Justice can be Sought, and Compensation Won
The last of the key learnings that Fronzuto Law Group’s latest string of case victories offers us, is the most memorable and the most salient to you, our reader. If you take anything away from these few minutes spent reading, let it be this: the law provides innocent victims with recourse and a path toward justice and just compensation.
It is intrinsic to personal injury and medical malpractice law, that undue losses need not be out of reach. As a person injured or the loved one of someone who was, the legal process is a vehicle, a mechanism, a means by which to hold others accountable and to recover the resources you’ll need to become whole, to the extent that is possible. The law also serves as a tool through which to right the wrongs that turned your life upside-down, and a way to provide for the best life you can in the months and years to come.
As dedicated attorneys representing clients in product liability, medical negligence, catastrophic injury, and wrongful death matters arising everyday across New Jersey, we at Fronzuto Law Group stake our practice on this last lesson. The members of our firm are honored to facilitate the process of justice on behalf of those whom we represent, considering each client’s case an opportunity to offer support in the midst of trying times, clarity in the confusion of intimidating complexity, aggressive advocacy in the face of overwhelming odds, and a future that appears brighter than before.
